


Keeping the Shop Open

by iamisaac



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: Gen, first person POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-20
Updated: 2015-11-20
Packaged: 2018-05-02 14:21:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5251433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iamisaac/pseuds/iamisaac





	Keeping the Shop Open

When Fred died, it was as if half my skin had been flayed off and maggots left to feed on it. Or worse, in fact – that would only have hurt my body; my soul was ripped apart.

Oh, sorry. I’m George Weasley, co… no, _sole_ owner of Weasleys Wizard Wheezes.

What’s that? I don’t seem very amusing for someone who runs a joke shop? No, I suppose not. Oh, and you’d heard that…

Yes, when Fred was alive the two of us were known for our jokey repartee. But you see, he’s dead. I might as well have died with him; certainly instead. If we were two halves of a whole, he was the bigger half. ‘Fred and George’ we were known as (or, as often, ‘Gred and Feorge’) – never ‘George and Fred’. Make of that what you will, but I know what it meant.

The only one who didn’t know was Fred. Course, he joked about it. Remember when Harry Potter – yes, of course that Harry Potter; how many others are there? – was accused of being the Heir of Slytherin and letting a monster loose on Hogwarts? Oh right, you’re too young are you? Yeah, you look a bit of a squirt, now you mention it. Anyway, most people took it seriously but Fred and me… we thought it was a great joke and kept leaping out at him yelling “Seriously evil wizard coming through!” Great laugh, it was.

Anyway, Fred was like that about us. Used to look at us in the mirror – yes, identical to the last freckle, and no, it’s none of your business whether that counts for everything…. Anyway, my bum’s never been the same since we invented Fudge Fever (don’t ask – you REALLY don’t want to know) – he’d look at us in the mirror, as I was saying, and say “Yeah, I always was the handsome twin.” Or the clever one, or the funny one.

Even when we had wanking competitions – oh, come off it, there’s no need to look like that. I bet you’ve done the same; you would’ve if you’d had a twin, anyway – Fred always came first… literally. Or if he didn’t, he’d be claiming it was quality and quantity, not time, that counted and that he’d won on points.

My ear? Or rather, lack of it? About the first thing Fred did was take the piss because he said I wasn’t funny enough about it. That was Fred all over – he might’ve been freaked out but joking was our way of getting through. Doesn’t feel the same without him: no joke on earth’s going to bring him back… though if you’re looking for a good joke to play on a ghost, we… _I_ … have a nice range back here. Take a look. I might as well get some money off you since I’m giving you our life story. What did you come in for if you didn’t intend to buy anything?

Yeah, right, the witty comments. Well, go and find someone whose bro hasn’t just been knocked off by Death Eaters and maybe they’ll be a bit funnier. But they won’t have better quality stuff than there is here. Me and Fred, we’re world experts at this sort of stuff. You can’t buy talent like ours.

Damn right I’m flogging the stuff. You thought I might shut up shop, did you, given what I’ve just said? Well, listen to this, matey. This shop is all I’ve got left of Fred. It stands for everything we ever did together, everything we had. We were twins, best friends, the whole lot. I’m never giving it up. 

Now, buy something or piss off, okay?


End file.
